


right side of rock bottom

by zipzipnada



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Fuckbuddies to boyfriends, Light Dom/sub, M/M, and fall completely in love in the process, background trimberly, if that's a thing yea it is, they also have no concept of personal space, they alternate on who doms and who subs, zack and jason are angry kids and they work out their frustrations in a surprisingly healthy way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-17 10:06:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10591788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zipzipnada/pseuds/zipzipnada
Summary: they're tactile, violent and absolutely perfect for each other





	1. Chapter 1

Zack learns early on that Jason is just like him.

  
Angry on the inside but flippant on the outside. He doesn't know where Jason's rage comes from but it demands to be felt just like his does and it feels better than it should to let their dark thoughts clash like this. Turning their demons on each other instead of letting them eat at little boys.

Kimberly once told them to use their words rather than their fists but there's something more concrete about resting his forehead to Jason's temple after a spar, swinging their arms over each other's shoulders and basking in a bizarre rush of endorphin. The pressure release of finally venting all their anger, all their frustrations, on someone who was hurting just as bad, who they couldn't hurt, who could give back as good as they gave, _a challenge_  and laughing away the debris afterwards: skin to skin, heart racing.

  
They've only been brutally laying into each other for a few minutes, half way from school and half way to Jason's house, when Zack dents his rings on Jason's chin and Jason kicks Zack in the stomach so hard he flies backwards and crushes a rich guy's tiny wooden shed. They both freeze, _oh shit_ washing over both their faces, then a split second later Zack snorts so hard he clocks his head on the house behind him and Jason cracks up too. Full on laughter, watery eyes and stomachs clenching with cramps, they're eighteen years old, the oldest of the Rangers, but they're just little kids deep in their souls. Right there at the edge of dusk they roar and cackle, in the middle of a neighborhood Zack has no right to be in with his unwashed clothes and holes in his shoes.

  
They fight yes. All passion and fists and to the outside world it must seem like they hate one another in these moments.

  
Zack dips his head back again, looking at the sky and breathing through laughs and the fact Jason actually winded him for a second there. "You kicked me in the gut, man. Fucking broke a baby shed. What if I puked?"

  
But no. Zack doesn't hate Jason. On the contrary, he thinks he probably likes Jason too much.

  
"Fuck, Z, I'm sorry. I think it's a wood store, you know to keep the firewood in?" Red manages between tears, jogging up the short distance to where he'd flung his friend, and he wiggles his fingers in front of Zack's eyes.

  
"Psh. Just hope no one saw eh?" Is all Zack says as he takes Jason's hand with a lazy swing.

  
He doesn't need any help clambering out of the impromptu throne of broken wood and rich guy bespoke fireplace dreams, but lets Jason tug him up anyway. Zack bumps into him from the momentum and they stumble down the small bank of the lawn they'd invaded. Jason holds him, Zack holds him back, and for a pulse or two they just grin at each other. When Jason opens his mouth to say something, the sound of a door banging open has their heads snapping around.

  
"What the hell is this?" An old guy falls out of his house, shuffling around the corner with eyes wide.

  
Before the man has time to spot the culprits, Jason is hauling it down the road, hand clamped down on Zack's and god this is far better than some dusty person in a neat but friendly suit telling him to talk about the emotions raging in him over his mother's illness. This feels more like therapy, more like _life_ than any of those stuffy rooms and sympathetic tones ever did. He can hear the man shouting after them, likely threatening them with the police for breaking his... whatever it was Zack's ass destroyed, and they're running at what to them is a leisurely pace but to the world it's edging on dangerously fast. Too fast. It feels great and Zack lets out a whoop for good measure, grinning when he hears Jason's faint answering laughter around the whipping air.

  
They don't stop until they hit Jason's house, and Zack means that literally when Jason's head cracks against the wall as he lands on it, sending a litter of crushed brick flaking to the ground. He doesn't wince at the impact, they're both made of tough stuff after so many hours spent being beaten down on by Alpha A's vicious training simulations, but Jason does shift around slightly to look at it, eyes wide and Zack joins him.

  
"Oh my god we're just destroying Angel Grove one house at a time" Zack mused, as he leaned over Jason to trace his finger over the crack. He thinks nothing of it until he gets the ghosts of Jason's pants on his neck, and his hair rises. He can feel Jason's chest heaving against his own: his arm shifting to rub the bruise forming on the back of his head. They've been close before, their relationship is definitely expressed physically over verbally, but Zack feels light this time. Too light. Like he might float away.

  
"Mr. Green is going to write to the town paper about that" Jason jokes, half serious, pinning Zack with bright eyes. The world goes quiet and zeroes in on another person's breathing, and the Black Ranger is drawn in when he looks Jason's way, almost nose to nose. This close he sees that his quasi-leader's eyes are grey not blue, and whatever Zack was thinking about saying before that is lost under this new revelation. They're pale, enough that most days they steal the sky, but not now, _now_ they're catching all the colours around them, cool from the setting sun, and they're shiny from the exhilaration of the reckless choices the pair made in the last fifteen minutes of their lives. Like this its hard to imagine them igniting with Jason's incredible temper, going dark and angry and consuming. There's a few little lines between Jason's eyebrows that he notices at the same time as a palm squeezing his shoulder, and a thumb digging into his clavicle. Enough to break a regular Humans' collar bone, a reminder of how nice it is to not have to be so damn careful with each other, but for Zack all it does is remind him that he's not looking at a picture but a person. Who's staring back at him looking adorably confused, concerned.

  
He blinks at Red.

  
"You okay?" Jason checks again, for what could well be the third time, and the lines between his brows deepen. Zack's reminded of the thrill back when all this began, in the car after being hauled in and suddenly having _this_ face all up in _his_ face. A buzz is in his head, itching with an impulse Zack is aware is a piss poor idea but wants to go for anyway, because they're both still running high from their impromptu spar and the risk they took showing strength in public. His body tilts closer, leaning harder on the other Ranger and Jason's thumb digs in a little deeper. He can't decide whether he imagined the feeling of being pulled or not.

  
Zack nods, shrugging. "Yeah sure, are you? You really smacked your head"

  
His hands are in Jason's hair before he can tame down the fizzing spark of _idea,_  and his knuckles graze the wall behind Jason's head, holding him in a way that makes the blonde freeze. Zack's not alone then that this feels different. This feels more intimate, _other,_ to their usual tactile friendship. Jason's hair is soft, slightly curled and a little greasy from the burning hot summer that's encroaching on them, but definitely soft and any ounce of responsibility flies out of the Black Ranger when Jason's breathing shakes at the gesture.

  
"You hit your head too. I think you even had whip lash"

Yeah. Zack did hit the shed like a bulldozer. But he's far more interested in Jason's silky hair slipping through his fingers, the heat of his scalp, the intensity of pale eyes giving him tremors.

  
"Nah, I'm just fine"

  
Alpha A once commented that the pair of them were 'abnormally' prone to forgetting proximity, interrupting them in a similar pose. He'd followed up with a million and one questions on different Human relations while Trini hyperventilated, something about intense bromances confusing poor AI circuits, and Jason shoved Zack away with a half-laugh, half-huff.

  
He doesn't do that this time.

  
His hands rest on Zack's body but there's no shoving when Zack inhales sharply and claps a kiss on Jason's mouth. It's short, abrupt, over before either of them even have time to close their eyes, and hyperactive in the way Zack's head darts back to study, wide eyed, Jason's reaction. There's nothing to gauge from the kiss, no feeling to register because it was all over too quickly, nothing except that Jason's lips are really soft considering they can be as sharp as knives sometimes. He wanted to do that, kiss Jason, back in the car in a single heated heart beat: thrilled just from the way Jason looked at him, and the impulse would sit idle until pale eyes turned his way again.

  
"You hit your head" Jason intones. Crushingly blank. Zack's euphoria bleeds away in one breath.

  
Oh shit. Bad impulse. Should've ignored it.

  
He wants to contradict Jason, because the Red Ranger put his hands on Zack's ribs and lost his breath when Zack got close, lost his mind when his friend, his something, sent tingles over his scalp with a touch, _don't bullshit me boss man_ \- but doesn't. He wants to cup Jason's face and stroke the summer time freckles forming on his cheekbones. Kiss him deeper, sweeter, enough to savor it, hear the other boy moan into his mouth, and try to ground himself because he might just drift away like helium, but he doesn't.

  
Instead he puts on a grin and dips out with a wise crack that has Jason huffing and shaking his head with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

He doesn't go home after. Instead when he leaves Jason's place, thanking Mrs. Scott profusely for dinner and hugging Jason goodbye like his mind and heart aren't screaming, he runs straight to Trini's.

  
When she first sees him at her window, sliding it open, she's pissed off and tries to shove him away saying something about guys not being allowed in her room and how her parents would flip. Which would be hilarious because she's gay and so is Zack, but it's soured by the fact that would only make her parents banish him even faster. In the middle of trying to close the window on him she really notices him, his expression, the shine of his eyes, and Zack just watches her mind whir. Something changes her mind then, and abruptly he's being hauled in and ushered over to her bed with a grumble he can't decipher.

  
"Come on, lie down" Trini whispers to him, in a much less frustrated tone. Her bed is softer and bigger than his, so it easily accommodates the pair of them and to Zack's shock Trini bundles him closer to her and wraps her arms around his shoulders like he's one of the twins. His head is on her shoulder, and his arms have no where to go but around her stomach so he forces his body to relax.

  
It's not the exactly same as his mother's hugs, but it ignites a similar feeling of security that has Zack wishing he wasn't an only child.

  
Well. He guesses he isn't anymore. He has Trini. Trini who's the youngest of them all, but the only other Ranger except for Jason who has the distinctive older sibling vibe the other three gravitated towards: he and Billy, with no biological siblings of their own who still haven't gotten over the wonderful novelty of Red and Yellow's behavior towards them, and Kimberly with an older brother away at college, who leans into their vibe without even noticing it. Zack's warm, safe and he feels as tiny as her baby brothers curled up on her bed listening to her breathing.

  
"I fucked up" Zack finally says when the number on her clock switches from 21:34 to 21:35. He speaks quietly, aware that her parents practically have superhearing.

  
Trini huffs. "How?"

  
"Jason"

  
He doesn't quite catch what she mumbles but embarrassingly she doesn't seem surprised. If he could see her face he imagines she's rolling her eyes. "So how did you fuck up with Jason?"

  
"Had dinner at his place today" He feels her nod, because yeah, they all knew that. The others frequently had dinner around each other's houses, and more commonly Zack had dinner around any one of their houses each week, since there just wasn't enough food or money for food at Zack's place to support their new Ranger appetites and dietary needs. Then he had take out with Trini in between because her parents wouldn't even let her new friends, bar Kimberly who's 'just lovely' through the front door let alone cast a shadow over their dining table. The irony is fantastic. "Kissed him"

  
Trini breathes out a small 'oh' and her arms tighten around him a fraction.

  
"Guess Red didn't take it too well?" There's an edge there that he doesn't like. He doesn't want Trini thinking badly of Jason, not in that way, because the last thing Jason is is a homophobe.

  
Zack shrugs. "He wasn't mean, he wasn't an asshole"

  
She snorts in disbelief and he can't help but smile a little.

  
"He just said I hit my head, and that we should get inside because his mom would gut us if we were late" He feels her shift to look down at him, eyebrow raised.

  
"Did you hit your head?"

  
"Oh yeah we both did. We got into a fight on the way over, I broke my ring on his face" He held up a hand, showing her his warped ring. She's shaking her head and he can picture the look of fond exasperation on her face.

  
For a little while they just lie there, dimly lit by Trini's reading lamp, and Zack can hear her parents shuffle off to their room for bed. For a moment he thinks they're going to open the door to bid her goodnight, but they don't even call it through the door. They say and do nothing. It annoys him.

  
"So he didn't even have the decency to reject you" Zack frowns, not seeing her logic. "He just reduced your feelings into a head trauma and acted like it never happened?"  
That sounded bad, he wants to tell her it wasn't like that but it really kind of was.

  
"I guess"

  
Trini swore.

 

"I like him"

  
She strokes his hair. "I know you do. Anyone with eyes knows you do"

  
He wants to ask if it's as obvious the other way. If anyone with eyes can see Zack likes Jason, can the same be said for any possible feelings Jason had for him?

  
"Not his fault he doesn't feel the same though, eh?" Zack mutters, miserable but trying to channel his mother's teachings of being reasonable about these things.

  
Trini just grunts and that's the last they say about it.

  
He stays for an hour longer, memorizing her room while she finished a chapter of The Hobbit, and he darts back out the window with a smile and a fist bump he can tell Trini knows is forced.

* * *

  
Everything else for the next two weeks is the same.

They hang out, Zack has dinner at Billy's and then take out with Trini during which they both ignore everything about their night of bonding, and eagerly awaits dinner at Kimberly's because there's always a feast waiting in the Hart household. He and Jason act like the kiss never happened and laugh when they find a tiny letter in the local paper written by Mr. Green about vandals 'ravaging' Angel Grove, shoving it in their friends faces like it's some kind of grand achievement.

And they train because even though they're all pretty sure no more threats are coming, it's the only way any of the five can release their energy safely and actually relax.

  
Exactly fifteen days after Zack pecked Jason on the lips like a pre-schooler and four after Zack's accepted nothing is going to happen between them- not that Zack counted...- they're sparring again, intense and alone, laughter dying as their light spar inevitably turns up a notch, and Zack's zeroes in on the soft mousy curls that have begun to stick to Jason's forehead. It's enough of a distraction that his leader is able to steal an advantage, and he flips Zack around until the Black Ranger is flat on the ground and Jason is sat on him: arm pinned under Zack's chin, one leg on Zack's right arm, and Jason's spare hand gripping Zack's left.

  
The imagery slams into him like a train.

  
Jason gasping out breaths, rosy lips parted into a half-smirk with cheeks flush, his weight on Zack and intense eyes spearing him. It's unfairly gorgeous especially when Zack still stings from Jason's vague not-rejection, and his brain doesn't seem to care about any of that. It instead takes him away from the real setting and plunges into one where Jason's sweat soaked shirt is off, soft lights illuminating damp, creamy skin, and it's not the cavernous tops of pit but Zack's ceiling he can make out behind Jason. Jason's arm on his neck is a hand holding on tightly as he rocks down, smirk replaced by a heady keen...

  
He can spot the exact moment Jason notices Zack's arousal. The minute shift in Jason's expression from triumphant to dark is quick and obvious, which only makes Zack's problem worse, and the Black Ranger is swearing in his head in a mess of English and Mandarin. It shouldn't be this satisfying to be held down, but Zack's sexual experience with another person is so abysmally limited he never got to find out sooner that domination did things like this to him, and he's never been more turned on than right now. Jason's lips open and close, bobbing between speaking and something else, imposing gray eyes darting over each tiny feature of Zack's face, and the pinned boy waits for Jason to retreat: to get off and somehow find a way to laugh this one off too.

  
Zack gasps silently at the loss when Jason's arm moves off his neck, quietly hating that he misses the strangely arousing pressure, and shakes when Jason notices: eyes widening a barest fraction. There's standstill that seems to last ages, the pair of them staring each other down and no matter what happens, Zack's pretty sure this will crop up in his shower fantasies.

  
He's so caught up in those thoughts that he jumps when, instead of getting off, Jason abruptly grips Zack's neck: fingers digging into the corners of his jaw to hold his head backwards an inch, and the heel of Red's palm presses down on Zack's Adam's apple. The force and suddenness ought to be frightening, but it has the opposite reaction in Zack, and his face flushes. A rush of exhilaration thunders through him, parting his lips to let out the tiniest sound, choked and wanting, and that snaps Jason's resolve. Both Jason's hands tighten when he dips down and crashes their mouths together, open and hot, and Zack's body bucks up roughly. He rips both his arms free from their vice constraints and immediately wraps them around Jason, crushing the other to him: edging on desperate.

Jason's kissing him, tongues and teeth and moaning loudly and Zack has to be going delirious because there's no way any of this is real.

  
He bites Jason's lip to test the illusion but it doesn't burst any elaborate fantasy or dream, it just makes Jason claw his nails down Zack's neck with a cry and roll his hips down hard. Hard enough that through their light weight training pants Zack can feel how into this Jason is too, and he thinks he sees stars prickle in the corners of his vision as his mouth pulls into a brief smile. Jason lets up on his throat for just a moment, and Zack bites at Jason's neck and jaw, pulling at familiar soft hair, and their rutting edges between glorious and painful.

  
"Za...ck" Jason groans, lips against Zack's temple, when teeth dig into his jawline and Zack moves a hand down around to the blonde's wrist to encourage his hand back around his neck. It's weird, Zack thinks to himself, but he's embarrassingly into it and he just really _wants.._. He gives a choked moan when Jason's fingers constrict at Zack's command. 

  
Orgasm hits Zack in one sudden wave, seizing his body and leaving finger print bruises on Jason's arms. Jason's thighs squeeze at his sides, grinding down one more time before Zack sees, through his coming down haze, sparks of red lightning among pale irises. He blinks, forcing his mind out of the post-sex fog. Two finger tips touch lightly on the soft skin under Jason's eye just as the last sparks ignite with Jason's loud moan. Both red bolts fizzle out as Jason tilts his head and leans into Zack's touch, coming down and disappearing under his lids as he goes slack over Zack.

  
Zack stares up at the arches of the cavern, lazily combing through Jason's hair, waiting for his breathing to even out and the sluggish weight of his body to ease off. He flops an arm back around Jason, huffing and pressing a kiss to the blonde's temple, and feels a smile against his neck in response.

  
He's sticky, beginning to feel uncomfortable, and about to mention the miniature fireworks in Jason's eyes when they hear voices down the hall, moving towards the pit. They freeze at the same time, and Zack whispers an apology when he shoves Jason off him, making the Red Ranger roll off to the side: thumping to the ground breathing in loud huffs that synchronize with Zack's own. Billy and Trini's footsteps clang on the stairs as they descend, Billy talking animatedly to her while the Yellow Ranger gave the occasional word in.

  
The pair stop as they round a pillar, finding their teammates sprawled on the floor.

  
Billy halts his speech and grins at them. "Who won?"

  
Trini looks less impressed, her arms folded and a blank look on her face. Inside her head she thinks back to days before, when Zack looked lost and upset, and it was Jason's fault.  "Zack, I'd say Zack. He looks too happy to have lost"

  
Zack squints at her, resting an arm on his forehead. To his right, Jason grunts at the same time Zack shakes his head, remembering back to the actual spar they'd had.  
"I did actually" Jason says into the dirt, making no attempt to move. Zack imagines its because his pants are light gray, not dark navy like Zack's. "I won"

  
"He did. He beat me hard" His partner agrees, looking from Trini to Billy and back again. Neither of them give any indication that they can hear the innuendo woven into the conversation. Jason laughs at the ground but still doesn't move aside from turning his head over to look at them all. There's dust stuck to his skin from sweat and his eyes are normal. Grey. Amused and wrecked but perfectly ordinary.

  
Trini rolls her eyes and nudges Zack's ear with her boot toe. Her voice is incredulous. "Did you strangle him? Crap, you guys need to chill sometime. You know we're not actually training to kill each other. We're training to kill other people"

  
Billy makes an alarmed sound and dips to check Zack's neck, and sure enough the skin there is raw and striped. "I'd rather we don't kill anyone, each other or anyone else"  
He moves to touch the forming bruises and Zack turns over quickly, laughing and blowing a cloud of dust over Jason's face, lightly swatting Billy away. "He did. It's fine. You two go... go spar... we're just gonna-"

  
Jason snorts.

  
"-Lie here for a bit. Bye"

  
He hears Trini mutter under her breath but doesn't catch it all. He's going to have to explain this, he knows that, but she's getting nothing from him until he knows what just happened himself. As through arrives so does wave after wave of anxiety, and his high fades into panic. The same panic that stabbed into him after the kiss, telling him he'd made a mistake, that he ruined everything, even though this time Jason instigated, and Zack suddenly can't handle anything, not the sound of Trini and Billy starting up a much less vicious spar, or the faint brush of Jason's reaching fingers on his hand. He snaps his hand away from Jason, ignoring the flinch Red gives, and he gets up to beeline for the stairs: all but bolting out the pit. He takes the steps three at a time, bounding up and away from the ghost sensation of Jason's skin on his, and he's in such a rush he bumps into Kimberly through the doorway.

"Woh, woh, you okay Zack?" Kimberly asks, grabbing him.

Zack darts a look down into the pit. Trini and Billy fight fluidly, uninterrupted. On the far side of the pit, Jason has pulled himself up onto his elbows, jaw hanging and looking up at him with an unreadable expression.

He pulls himself away and skids past Pink, ignoring her calling after him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> these damn kids are socially constipated idiots.
> 
> sorry for the weird pacing this fic has, can't seem to get the right flow yet, so if anyone would like to beta read just let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

Jason declines a spar with Kimberly, eyes fixed on where Zack bolted, and from her scowl he can tell he was too dismissive. He winces when he finally does look at her, shrinking the tiniest bit when she folds her arms.

  
"Okay, what gives? You gonna tell me why Zack just stormed out or...?"

  
He wants to, because Kimberly has shared so much of her personal life with him he ought to return the trust. She wants to be the same confidant to him as he is to her, but they're both high strung and private, conditioned practically from birth to be golden with pearly smiles, so he figures if anyone is going to understand his reluctance it would be her. Admitting or revealing vulnerabilities was not easy for kids like them. Even Trini opened up quicker than they did.

  
"I... I don't know" He tells her honestly and her annoyance deflates into understanding. He has an idea, sure, Jason can hardly blame Zack for wanting to make a break for it since they're both sticky and raw, but the way Zack jerked away from his touch... it made Jason think he really had no clue on Zack's real motivations for disappearing.

  
He promises himself and Kimberly that he'll talk to Zack, and he waits until Kimberly has walked off to start up a simulation to hurry out of the pit: never more glad that there was a wall of water between the ship and the outside world.

 

* * *

  
It's almost eye roll worthy that Rita was right that others would come.

 

That they would come before Jason has a chance to pin Zack down and work out why the guy bolted.

  
This time the threat came straight to them, diving through the water and wasting no time with the theatrics Rita had employed. No matter how many times Alpha A told them not to worry about him, he was an android and therefore felt no pain, the Rangers never got over the image of him being plucked up by a mammoth spiked being working under the orders of some faceless new foe and tossed so hard against the ship walls that his head smashed open: sending pieces and wires everywhere. It took them an hour afterwards piecing him back together, Billy frantically deciphering the Morphing Grid and Zordon's instructions, while the others scoured the area for every single tiny piece of Alpha A's intricate construction from the planes and grates of the ship.

  
Once reconstructed and switched back on, Alpha A's first action was to inquire over Zordon's status and point out the blood soaking Jason's shirt.

  
"You know" Zack's voice perks up out of nowhere, long after Jason told the others to go home. The suddenness ought to make him jump, but even in his exhausted state Jason doesn't. He knew one of the others was close by. Like a pull in his heart. "I'm starting to think Wall Dad must have been a real douche"

  
It surprises a laugh from Jason, because with the tone the Black Ranger took he'd honestly expected a rare moment of sobriety from him. "You say that in the past tense"

  
Zack shuffles closer and his shoulder touches Jason's as they stare at Zordon's dormant wall. He had wondered what Zordon did when the Rangers were away, what Alpha A did, and as it turned out they went on stand by. They slept, for lack of a more accurate word for what they did. After the trauma of the last grueling two hour fight keeping a spindly, nightmare robot from stealing the essence of what kept Zordon's mind active in the grid, they all needed sleep and Jason tries to be annoyed that Zack ignored his order. Tries to but fails, as he is a hypocrite who ignored his own advice.

  
"True, true. I mean we keep having to deal with all his baggage from the old days. Rita. Now whoever this new dude is with his legion of Slenderman robots" Is Zack's reply, and Jason hopes to god he's not right, they can't handle more insanely old people and their beef with Zordon. The guy died millions of years ago, and was only re-awoken in the last six months. How was there anyone still _alive_ to have grudges to cash in on?

Rita and some guy named Zedd. Apparently. Jason hopes they're the only ones.

  
Jason shivers when a hand reaches across and gingerly moves his shirt aside to inspect the slice across Jason's collar bone. It stung but was healing, the deep gash already turning shallow and bruised. He doesn't know why Zack feels the need to check it again, since all four of the others had obsessively monitored it once they found out Jason got hit. Trini had even called him an asshole for not telling them sooner.

  
Alpha A's brains were literally all over the floor. Jason felt like a cut just wasn't as urgent.

  
Zack gives a sympathetic hiss.

  
"Doesn't hurt too badly anymore" Jason starts to say, but it's cut off by Zack taking his hand and leading him away, murmuring something about not going home with a bloodied, torn up shirt. He's too tired to be shocked, too tired to be anything but pliant, and he lets Zack steady him when they land on the gorge outside.

  
They'd held hands before, so there's nothing odd about walking down to the trailer park in the encroaching dark with fingers interlinked. Jason barely notices in fact, too focused on one step in front of the other and the loud, invasive thoughts wondering what would have happened if it was someone else stood near the entrance and not Alpha A: the android was a being they could piece back together. Kimberly had been stood dangerously close as it was, barely missing being thrown like a rag doll to the wall alongside Alpha A. A few inches over and...

  
"Shh, come on, don't go there bro" Zack knocks their shoulders again, alerting Jason to the fact he had been voicing his thoughts again. Don't go thinking about the fact more freakish robots could be on their way, as difficult to take down as the one they'd fought off that evening. Don't think about any of it. He gives Jason a small smile, pushing open his front door and ushering his friend in. It's small in Zack's house, the path through to Zack's room is much narrower than in Jason's and he doesn't need to be reminded of the creaking patch of floor going past Jia's door because his legs are already habitually stepping over it.

  
He blinks when Zack flicks on his bedside lamp and by force of habit sits down on Zack's loud, springy bed. Even though his cut had been cleared by everyone, Zack still moves in closer and peels back the rags of his shirt again to inspect it in the meek light. He pulls on it, wearing an expression usually reserved for caring for his mother. "Take this off. You can borrow one of mine"

  
Being told that to do pissed Jason off usually. If it were anyone else he's sure he'd argue that his shirt was fine, not to worry, but he knows as well as Zack does that the second his parents clap eyes on Jason's bloody, ripped up shirt they're going to demand answers that Jason can't provide. At best Jason could pass it off as a bad fight after detention but that would only worsen the slowly repairing bond with his father.

  
So instead of insisting everything is fine, Jason eases his shirt off and flicks it at the trash can by Zack's door, slam dunk, earning himself a sharp grin from Zack before he goes to hunt through his set of drawers. They're the same height, but Jason is slightly broader, and he notices the other Ranger picks out a grey shirt Jason knows fits baggy on Zack to accommodate this. In the back of his mind he puts down knowing Zack's wardrobe so well to how unvaried all of it is and not Jason's hyper-awareness of the Black Ranger.

  
Lamely he reaches for it as Zack moves back, and looks up when instead of getting soft fabric dropped into his hands, Jason gets a hand feathering up his arm, over his shoulder and dipping down his collar bone parallel to the slice. Even in the warm nighttime of summer, Jason gets goosebumps.

  
"You're right, can't just put us back together like Alpha" Zack sounds as drained as Jason feels. It's not late, the clock reads nine pm, but a life time could have passed for all the stress of the last few hours since they walked to the ship from school together. The Red Ranger tilts back as Zack steps closer again, up onto the bed with a knee either side of Jason's hips, and Jason figures this is just what their relationship is now. No need to discuss it.

  
He doesn't mind.

  
Gentle kisses drop over each welt and bruise mottling Jason's clavicle, hands moving over the contours of Jason's back rising more goosebumps and Jason finds his palm flat on the small of Zack's back, breathing through his nose with eyes closed.

  
It feels safe to let Zack kiss him here. Far away from his house where they might be seen by-

  
"Lie down"

  
A simple command that snaps him away from unwanted thoughts yet again, and Jason's too grateful for Zack's peculiar ability to tell when his mind is moving into self-destruct to pitch a fit over being told what to do. For the second time that night Jason wordlessly does as he's told and lies back on the covers, letting Zack angle them around as he does so, so his head lands on the pillow. The bed squeaks and complains at the weight of two superhuman beings on it.

  
Jason watches Zack drop the shirt to the floor, and keeps staring at it as his ears pick up every move the other makes to lean over Jason, face hovering nose to nose over him. They're not touching anymore, and they feel closer now than their frenzied groping days before.

  
"Look at me" Zack orders quietly, and Jason's eyes snap from the discarded shirt on the floor to the other man instantly. Pale eyes drift over Zack's face, and only settle on his eyes when Zack repeats himself.

  
Against his solar plexus he can feel the coolness of Zack's necklace when the man in question leans down.

  
"Kiss me"

  
Jason does, barely lifting his head because Zack's already inched close enough. It's chaste. Deeper than their first, but far more reserved than their last. He ought to call back his own orders, demand to know why Zack flinched from him, why he was now acting as though that never happened, but then Zack would ask him why he shut down back at the house and despite promises to Kimberly Jason doesn't want to talk about any of that.

  
Zack tells him to touch him, so he does. He traces over Zack's stomach under his shirt, wondering if the six pack was there before the coins like Jason's was, albeit enhanced, or if the flesh there used to be soft. He does as he's told when Zack wants Jason to pull it off him, and unbuckles both their belts as he kicks of his shoes just like the Black Ranger tells him to. Handing over control was not something Jason had ever done before, never dared to do and fought against whenever someone tried to take it from him.

  
But right then it was nice. Relaxing. _Grounding_.

  
He takes them both in his hand when Zack whispers to do so, cutting off his loud moan when Zack snaps for him to be quiet. Jason's usually vocal but he's silent this time because Zack told him to be; pressing his lips together and barely letting out a squeak when Zack mouths down his neck, nips and bites and licks. His strokes are as languid as Zack wants them to be and his fingers clamp down on a fist of black hair, tight as Zack wills it. He swallows Zack's cry as he responds to the heady whisper to make him come, tasting ozone in Zack's tongue, and winces from the over-sensitivity when Zack takes his time in telling Jason when he's allowed to come too.

  
The clock reads eleven pm when Jason remembers he has a suffocating home to get back to, three hours later than he said he'd be back, and he doesn't need to look at his phone to know there's several texts and missed calls asking where he is.

  
"I need to go" Jason's voice is soft, like the mellow yellow light from Zack's lamp, like Zack's dozing off breaths next to him on the bed.

  
Zack gives him a thumbs up, more asleep than awake, but he stirs when the bed practically screams at even the slightest movement Jason makes to get up. His zipper is loud, so is his buckle, and he can sense Zack's eyes watching the light dance over his back as he dips to pick up the shirt off the floor. The shirt from the floor that's baggy on Zack, but fits Jason nicely and just as Jason goes to leave he feels a tug on it, so turns to see what his sleepy, sleepy friend has to say.

  
"Your eyes get kick ass red lightning when you come, bro" Comes out in a funny little mumble against the pillow, and Jason shakes his head, not having a clue what Zack means. He would ask for some clarification, but Zack drops off immediately after with a speed Jason envies. It's hilarious to be called 'bro' after jacking the both of them off, so he takes that away with him rather than the first half, and even though his parents lay into him about not answering their calls or coming home on time the second he walks through the door at almost midnight- _what about your damn monitor, Jason, for godssake do you never think?!_ \- he's happy.

  
Really, really happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love these gay kids. So much guys.


	4. Chapter 4

It's barely three days later when Jason finds his innocent walk to detention interrupted by being shoved bodily into the men's bathroom. His brain goes through a quick cycle of: _shit, wait, oh okay_. Because once the first slap of fear passed, it caught up to him that there were only four other individuals he knew of with the strength to shove Jason even a nudge back, let alone flying into another room.

  
Also, his ear is filled with the sound of Zack laughing. Which eliminates the possibility that it's some new threat.

  
Jason dents the hand dryer when he knocks into it. They need to stop doing that.

  
"Crap, Zack. Calm down" Jason exclaims, smoothing his fingers over the dent. There's no way of fixing it, but by the state of the rest of the room it would go unnoticed. He turns back to Zack, grinning, but then there's a mouth on his and his hands are in dark, silky hair before any more words pass his lips. It's like being bombarded with sunshine and raw happiness, radiating off of his friend.

  
He can feel Zack shaking. An energy inside him Jason could practically taste and it ignites a similar energy in Jason, like it always would. They're each other's catalyst.

  
Biting Zack's lip, Jason manages to break their kiss and shove the other Ranger back, smile wide and bewildered. He grabs hold of Zack's shirt though, so the other doesn't float too far away. "What the hell are you doing?"

  
Zack doesn't answer immediately, instead he presses a kiss to the tip of Jason's nose. Jason's memory flashes to the first time Zack did such a thing. One quick peck on his nose as a thank you for passing the popcorn and poor Billy had been trapped between it, clearly burning with questions but going along with it because... it was just how Zack and Jason operated. In the months they had been friends their bond grew stronger, all in different ways, and their's happened to be gestures of affection verging on inappropriate for two guys who insisted they were just friends.

  
"My mom got to leave the house yesterday. She walked and sat on the bench" Zack announces finally, practically glowing, and Jason returns his blinding smile. The bench had to have been a good few feet from Zack's place, meaning Jia had walked an incredible distance for a woman often too frail to sit up by herself.

  
"That's great! For how long?"

  
The black haired boy shrugs. "Only for a few minutes, but god Jay, you shoulda' seen her. She was so happy, she looked so strong- hey do you think our strength can transfer? Like if people are around us long enough our energy rubs off on them?"

  
It's a fantastic thought and one to ask Zordon or Alpha A. Jason made a mental note to send a group text around for training, this wasn't something that could wait.

  
"I don't know, we'll have to ask. Was that why you weren't in math?" Jason had been a little disappointed to see Zack missing and had texted him, with no reply. They graduated soon and if Zack wanted to avoid being held back, again, he needed to show up to classes. He feels less like a disapproving mom friend when Zack nods. "Forgiven, totally forgiven. You can go through my notes. How is she now?"

  
The Black Ranger tilts his head. "Fine. Tired, but aw man, she was so happy. It's been months since she last got to leave"

  
Jason can't imagine being trapped in a tiny trailer for so long. Doesn't want to. Impulsively he kisses Zack again and this time it's Zack who pulls away.

  
"Can we skip detention?" He asks, voice layered with meaning, and soft against Jason's lips.

  
No. They couldn't. But they do anyway.

  
They break the tank cover on the toilet when Jason shoves Zack into a stall but neither of them pay it any notice. Zack sits, half slipping down, on the lid and pulls on Jason's hair with one hand and the other in his own hair, as he watches Jason drop to his knees and unfasten the front of Zack's jeans. Hot hands push up Zack's shirt, up past his belly button, and Black's hand moves down from his hair to cover his mouth when Jason presses open mouthed kisses over his stomach and pelvis, thumbs massaging over his hip bones as the Red Ranger makes his way down closer to the waistline of Zack's underwear.

  
And because they're them, Jason bites the sensitive skin there before he drags down the cotton.

  
Strong hands hold down Zack's hips, blocking how they jerk up, when Jason licks up Zack's cock and sucks lightly on just the tip. It's practiced, confident, and Zack feels an unexpected wave of possessiveness realising that Jason has done this before. He's gone onto his knees for another guy and done things Zack's only ever day dreamed about. He had a girlfriend once, but that never passed kissing and blushing dates before his mom got sick and he ditched his social life, so everything going on between them now is new to him. Rutting and hand jobs were great... but a _mouth_. With so little experience, Zack's as new to the sounds he's making as Jason is, who's undoubtedly encouraged by Zack's hitching gasp, and despite two years of practice keeping himself silent in the shower he has to bite down on his sleeve when the blonde takes him completely in his mouth. It's hot, wet, Jason's tongue is soft and Zack's fantasied about getting a blow job many times, but none of that compared to actually getting one.

  
Conscious of where they are, Zack pursed his lips, jaw tense, to stifle back a long moan when Jason sucks up, hard and slowly, one hand moving to the base of Zack's dick and jerking him off just as slowly, slick with spit. The stalls are turquoise, which catches in Jason's eyes, making them look impossibly blue as he peers up at Zack through rediculous lashes to check that every reaction Zack makes is a good one. He thumbs over the tip, sending a bolt through Zack, and smirks as he dips back down to flick his tongue across the hole before once more taking the whole entire in. Jason manages to keep his teeth well out of the way as he bobs up and down languidly, taking his time no matter how tight Zack's hand clamps down on his hair or how sharp his hips jerk, and there's a dare in his eyes as he looks up again: their eyes locking.

Zack grips the tissue dispenser, cracking the plastic, instead of covering his mouth as Jason manages to go even slower.

  
Jason inhales through his nose, eyes still on Zack's, and hangs his jaw wider still. Zack's lips part as he watches Jason take more in gradually, breathing oddly controlled in a manner Zack starts to mimic until Jason suddenly stops, and he then he can feel Red's throat, his lips around the very base of him and Jason's nose is against his pelvis. Jason's eyes flutter closed with a frown of concentration as he swallows.

  
Zack shouts.

  
Regardless of anyone who might hear, he cries out, loud and keening. He comes abruptly filling Jason's mouth as the quasi-leader pulls back to breathe, and Zack faintly hears Jason make a surprised sound. Zack doesn't know when he closed his eyes too, but when he opens them gray eyes are bright looking at him, and Jason's mouth hangs open just enough for Zack to see the coat of creamy white inside, pooling on and under the Red Ranger's tongue, a trail of it from Jason's lip to the end of Zack's cock.

  
Zack lets go of Jason's hair and wipes his thumb over the corner of Jason's lips, spit and come smearing, and sucks in a breath when Jason sucks lightly on it.

  
"Fuck" Zack croaks when Jason lets his thumb go, gasping and feeling as though he ran a thousand miles in a thunder storm. His vision is hazy but stays on Jason, who drops back onto his ass, leaning on the stall door, and fishes out a bottle of water from his bag with heavy, clumsy hands. Jason's cheeks are flushed and all around his mouth there is a sleek shine, and goddammit his mouth is still ajar right until he finally gets the cap off his bottle and takes a gulp. He's speechless watching Jason wash his mouth, swilling the water around and then swallowing, eyes still fixed on Zack's.

  
After he swallows, Jason smirks through only a small grimace.

  
"Did you just-?"

  
Jason chuckles. Coughing and screwing the cap back on his water. "Yeah"

  
Zack laughs too, out of breath and still turned on, because Jason's voice is hoarse and what he did was a weird mix of gross and _fucking hot_. His eyes rake down Jason, noting how hard Jason obviously is, and Zack straightens. For a few minutes they sit in the stall, panting and smiling, regaining sense and calming their heaving lungs. On shaky legs he stands, tucking himself away, and does nothing but smile at Jason's curious look as he pulls the other up by the hands and in a show of strength he doesn't entirely feel, lifts Jason completely off his feet.

  
"Oh, shit" Jason starts, bracing himself by grabbing hold of Zack's shoulders, legs snapping around Zack's waist. He gives a short bewildered laugh, cut off when Zack kisses him deeply and adjusts them so Jason's weight is mostly on Zack's half bent legs and the stall wall behind them.

He smiles into Jason's neck as he listens to the soft, desperate keens and mewls that spill out of the blonde Ranger between vicious swearing when Zack's hand moves down the front of his pants and jerks Jason off into a much louder scream: hand gripping the top of the stall hard enough to bend it.

* * *

  
Billy slurped his drink, catching the last dregs of strawberry milkshake, and then leaned back, content.

To his left and right sitting on the wall booth were Trini and Kimberly, enjoying drinks of their own- one coffee, one a chocolate milkshake- and across the table on separate chairs, their backs to the rest of Starbucks, are Jason and Zack.

  
They're as distracted by their drinks as the girls are, and don't seem to notice Billy's scrutiny. Watching them now, it's apparent to the Blue Ranger something he'd started to notice in recent weeks. Usually the pair had an odd tension in them. Jason always had a quiet edge of anger, ready to attack anyone who stepped out of line and came too close to those he cared for. A kind of rage that settled deep in his being and was evident to anyone with a half-decent survival instinct. And then Zack, who was always buzzing. Always wired and tittering on a similar edge to Jason, this one almost like madness: like Zack was one bad day away from flipping a table and screaming. A kind of stir crazy and raw that came from being trapped between a rock and a hard place.

  
Only now that anger in both boys seems gone. Not even dormant, for it's always dormant. It's gone now, as it had been times before, and they look soft and warm, so relaxed their movements are sloth-like and quiet.

  
Billy's never known either of them to be so quiet.

  
"You guys don't seem so hyperactive anymore" He finds himself commenting, catching the groups' attention. The pair look up, eyebrows raised in question as they're addressed, and then to each other with subtle frowns.

  
Trini hums, needlessly stirring her coffee. "Yeah. Neither of you are as fucking annoying anymore. What gives?"

  
Pink pipes up too, right before she chomps down on her brownie. "Maybe it's the sun? Figures you guys would go all chill on us right when everyone else in town is getting tetchy over the heat"

  
Jason and Zack say nothing as Trini leans over Billy to steal a corner off of Kimberly's snack, and Blue is the only one who catches the odd look they send each other. Smirking. Knowing. Like they're about to laugh.

  
He wonders if it has anything to do with why they were twenty minutes late to detention earlier that day.

  
Billy never gets the chance to ask, because Jason gathers some of his vanilla shake in his mouth with an open grin directed at Zack, and gets a napkin thrown at him by Kimberly with a cry of 'oh gross, what are you five?'. It is disgusting, Billy's almost embarrassed and he thinks Zack must be too because the guy's looking away to stare out the window, expression drawn.

  
"Behold, the fearless leader of saviors of planet Earth, guardians of the Zeo Crystal" Trini deadpans to Billy before stuffing her mouth with the rest of the brownie while Kimberly is distracted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... I have no excuse for this. There's more to come too.
> 
> HAHA puns.
> 
> This is going to be a prologue story to a much longer one which will have a big plot and everything, so keep a look out for that.


	5. Chapter 5

"Ow, no. Slower than that"

  
As much as cleaning out the abandoned railcar had sucked, getting dust and cobwebs all over him, and picking each individual piece of glass from the floor had taken forever, Zack's immeasurably glad he went through it all now. He's proud of himself for going through all the effort to create a place they could be loud without worrying about waking his mother, since Jason never even let their embraces escalate from obnoxious bro-hugs when they were at his house.

  
The look Jason gave him when he presented the transformed interior- dusty old clutter gone in the place of a blankets, windows boarded up with wood to keep out the cold chill, all hidden by yet more blankets covering the walls for insulation- made it worth it. It was worth it when he and Jason gave by passers airy smiles as they carried a mattress through town, from Jason's house out into the middle of nowhere. It was even more worth it when Jason dropped onto his ass and threw his head back, laughing loudly at the sky, when said mattress pinged and swatted Zack in the face as they squeezed it through the rusty old doorway of railcar.

  
And now because of all that effort, in the half-glow of Pearl's old fairy lights powered by weak batteries pinned up around the edges of their den, Zack gets to see Jason lying down flushed and naked in this world Zack built just for them. Any thoughts on showing this masterpiece to the others died the second Red let out the first deep moan of the night; there was no way Zack was having Trini, or Billy, or god no Kimberly, sitting on this mattress complimenting his den making skills when he'd had sex on it. Jason agreed.

This was their place.

  
"Sorry" Zack whispers against Jason's neck, his hand going still. As beautiful as the sight of Jason is Zack's a little terrified of hurting him: or worse, boring him. The closest he'd ever got to this point was back two years prior, with his then girlfriend, and mutual petting ended prematurely when he came and she gave up trying to, suggesting they just watch a movie instead. It was a humiliating experience Zack did not need repeating.

  
Jason cups his neck, forehead against Zack's temple. "I didn't say stop, if you stop I might actually kill you"

  
The dark haired Ranger breaths out a quiet laugh. Zack tilts his head so their eyes lock. "No stopping, just slowly?"

  
"To start with, yeah" Red nods, stroking a line up Zack's arm with his hand until it joins his other around the back of Zack's neck. His expression shifts only a fraction when Zack eases his finger in further; licking lips and eyebrow twitching into a tiny frown. Jason takes in steady breaths, with each one Zack finds it easier to slip in, and soon enough he's easing his finger out again. Wet lube and Jason's relaxed breathing starts to work, and with a roll of his hips Jason smiles. "That- that's good, yeah that works"

Zack uncontrollably grins at the praise. Hearing Jason say 'good', and 'yeah', does stuff to him. Fluffy stuff he doesn't want to acknowledge.

  
"Another finger now" Jason instructs, holding onto Zack tighter than before.

  
He does as he's told, but still asks. "Sure?"

  
"Yeah. _Fuck_ Zack come on, I'm sure"

  
Jason pulls on Zack's hair.

  
Okay then.

  
He love and hates the sound of Jason saying those dangerous words in such a destroying, soft, breathless voice. Over and _over_. Against Zack's skin in kisses, in his ear strained like he's begging, lost in the thick air between them when his head tilts and his back arches off the mattress. Hands fluttering over Zack's shoulder blades as Zack pumps his wrist in a pace that gets faster with every groan of encouragement. He badly wants to take a picture of Jason when the Red Ranger grabs fist fulls of the blankets above his head: eyes bright with crimson energy as he pushes down on Zack's hand. It's exhilarating, the almost painful squeeze on his fingers and the thrash of Jason's body against his, the wet sound and feel of one hand between Jason's thighs and the other pumping his dick. The way he looks Zack in the eye through the whole thing. Clawing. Pleading. Smiling through a sigh every time Zack's long fingers go deep enough and at just the right angle.

This is more intense than in the bathroom stall, more like skirting by a comet and feeling it's heat sear across his skin, and Zack aches for a camera.

  
"我爱你" The Black Ranger breathes, heavy lidded as he pushes a third finger in, down to the last knuckles and crooks all three to ride Jason through his orgasm when it crashes into the blonde. For one soaring moment Jason's parted lips are silent, hanging open soundlessly as his nails tear the blankets by his head, and then his voice cracks in a broken half-sobs, half-laugh. His smile is ear to ear and tops off the mesmerizing image that has Zack caught in the second before a roller coaster drop. Zack repeats himself, lips brushing Jason's closed eyelids. "我爱你"

  
In his peripherals Zack can see Jason's coin shining, and so is his: dark and inky, but no less vibrant than Jason's. Side by side on a box they've used as a make shift table. They outshine the fairy lights, casting soft ruby light over the small train cabin, and Zack is pretty sure scientists everywhere would have a fit if they ever found out black light existed and it danced perfectly off of Jason's damp skin.

  
Later on, after Jason's regained his senses and pulled Zack down beside him, hand blisteringly warm and skilled on Zack's painfully hard dick until Zack's moaning into his neck and biting down on his throat through his own orgasm, they curl up in torn blankets and pretty feather fairy lights; floating between sleep and bliss.

  
".. does it really feel that good?" Zack mumbles into Jason's hair, and he listens to Jason huffing with the exertion of shuffling up on the mattress so they're face to face.

  
Zack's eyes are clear, warm and beautiful, and they catch Jason's attention like a magnet. They demand he wake up more, and the sleepy haze he was creeping into snaps away so quickly it leaves a cold, heaviness in Jason's gut that tingles over his skin. Something's clicked, deeper than orgasm, deeper than the Morphing Grid tying them to each other and their friends, and Jason's hands shake from the force of the epiphany.

  
"Hm?"

  
"Me doing that to you. Does it really feel that good? I never thought it would have _that_ kinda reaction"

  
Jason nods enthusiastically and cups Zack's face to kiss him. Soft. Sweet, the lightest of pressures but heavy on their racing hearts, and it might just be their first real kiss: one not charged with sex and not a bland, stolen peck too quick to be anything at all.

  
It says that way. Gentle. Unadulterated, and entirely too much. When they part both boy's turn onto their backs to blush at the ceiling instead.

  
"I'll show you one day" Jason offers, once his hands have stopped trembling.

  
They catch each other's sharp grins, smoothly bypassing the last minute of their lives.

  
"Coulda' showed me today" Zack says, pretending to pout. He giggles, muffled and snuffly, when Jason covers his face with a floppy hand.

  
"No. No. I'm too tired. When I do it I'll be awake and fully focused on you: anything less is shit" He declares this so seriously Zack can't help but laugh, licking Jason's palm and laughing even more when the blonde complains, wiping his hand on Zack's bare shoulder. It makes no sense that Jason is grossed out by having his palm licked after everything they've done to each other to make the other's vision white-out, and both boys are aware of this. It just makes it funnier.

  
While Zack tries to think of how he's going to ask Jason about his very apparent experience in the field of gay sex, the Ranger leader leans over him to where their coins are resting. He expects Jason to pick up his coin, but instead his hand falls on the rings Zack removed at Jason's orders before this all began. He picks one up and holds it up to the nearest fairy light bulb. It's plain, cheap and silver coloured, and not all that remarkable compared to some of the rings Zack's collected up over years as his fondness for jewellry grew. This one, if Zack's memory serves him right, came from his mother as his fourteenth birthday present. One year before she got too sick to go out and get him something, one year before Zack had to sign for his own gifts as they were delivered to the trailer.

  
Jason stays lying over Zack, head resting under Zack's chin, and in a dexterous move slips the ring down on his finger. It usually sits on Zack's middle finger, too big for the others, but it falls down to sit on the second knuckle on Jason's ring finger, and Zack has to reach up and push it down completely on for him.

  
"You have a lot of these...sorry for breaking one"

  
Zack grins. The ring that broke was one out of a cracker anyway. "On your hard ass face"

  
The Red Ranger laughs but Zack doesn't join in, because he's noticed something.

  
Jason is left handed, and Zack is on his right. He reached over, picked up and put on the ring with his left hand.

  
The imagery is clearly lost on Jason, who fumbles out a swear when he can't pull the ring off immediately, and decides he's too tired to try any longer. He grapples for his phone to set an alarm for some crack of dawn time Zack doesn't want to think about, and then adorably dozes off, snuggling down like a puppy onto his Zack pillow. A Zack pillow who only stops staring at the band on Jason's left ring finger when his own eyes close from exhaustion.

* * *

  
Jason winces in sympathy when Trini's fist connects with Kimberly's face and a crunch sounds over the pit, and sitting to his left the Blue Ranger raises his voice to ask if Kimberly's okay.

  
"Oh fuck" Trini shouts, even as Kimberly is saying it's all fine with an honest smile on her face regardless of her nosebleed, and with one glance Billy's way Jason decides to call it a night. They're all tired, over worked, and they have school come Monday so he figures they deserve the whole of Sunday to relax.

  
The moment Jason calls for quits Zack lets out a relieved cry, spinning away from the simulation he'd been fighting to give Jason the biggest, goofiest grin he can and a thumbs up. Affection flutters up in his chest, hitching his breath as he returns the gesture. It turns cold and unsure when Jason glances away and spies Billy's intense stare, his head turning from Zack to Jason and back again like he's trying to solve a puzzle. Jason clears his throat and gets up, offering Billy a hand up.

  
"Can we go get milkshakes again?" Billy asks as he's pulled up, and his question is directed at their linked hands, which he's brought up closer to his face to stare at with a blank look. Jason doesn't notice. He slips his hand out of Billy's scrutinizing hold moments later, and accepts Zack's challenge of a race up the stairs.

  
Kimberly gestures to her nose with a grin. "Definitely. This is going to need at least an hour to heal before I can face my parents, and that's if it doesn't bruise- but it's fine, Trin!"

  
She back peddles so fast when Trini's face twists with guilt, and it's enough to pull Billy's attention off his leader and to them instead. It'd become a well known fact between the boys that their Yellow and Pink were dancing around something, something the girls were incredibly unaware of. Billy did think for a while that his other friends, Zack and Jason, were at risk of hypocrisy for laughing about the girls, but now he wasn't so sure of that.

  
As the boy's disappear through the doorway, Billy hops up next to Trini and Kimberly as they mount the stairs.

  
"Did you two notice something odd about Jason?" He asks.

  
Trini gives him a look of 'when is white boy ever not odd?' but Kimberly takes his question seriously.

  
"Nothing odd really, he mentioned feeling less stressed which-" She pauses with a smile when Trini interrupts in a fake shocked tone with 'Jason's stress levels can go down?'. "Yeah, I know right. What'd you notice, Blue?"

  
Billy thinks about it for a moment and then shakes his head. "Nothing, just thought of something, doesn't matter"

  
He shoots them a smile and jogs up past them instead. He hears Kimberly complain about guys being annoying and vague, and Trini agreeing loudly. The Blue Ranger arrives in the entrance bay, as he'd dubbed it, just in time to hear Zack laughing.

  
"Still can't get it off? Just yank it, dude"

  
Jason pulls on his finger, twisting. "I could, but that would break it. I don't want to... break... ow.. another one. Uh, I have so, so many regrets about this"

  
"Fat fingers"

  
"Skinny fingers"

  
Billy slows down.

  
"You liked them enough last night"

  
It's hilarious how both of them jump through the roof when Billy pipes up, with pretend innocence on what they both mean. "Liked what last night?"

  
Kimberly and Trini arrive just in time to see Billy launch himself through the body of water above them, laughing to himself, and their remaining friends looking shocked.

Kimberly huffs. "Anyone else ever feel like Billy's in on a joke we've missed?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Billy is in on a joke. The hilarious joke that is Trimberly and Zason being unaware they're soulmates.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for implied suicide attempts in this one. It's only brief but still there.

Of them all, it's Trini who announces her college acceptance first.

  
Anticlimactically she sends a text into the group chat, vaguely saying she's moving to New York, which sparks a flurry of confusion in her friends which only worsens when Billy clicks and tells them he's moving to Massachusetts.

  
One of Zedd's nightmare robots crushes Kimberly's phone before she can gleefully tell them of her own acceptance and impending move to England. But she's able to tell them face to face later, after they tiresomely crush that robot and the Pink Ranger once again narrowly avoids being tossed like a rag roll by a glowing Slenderman.

  
Flopped out on Kimberly's carpet, staring at the whole ripped in her ceiling, Zack huffs. Surprised by his own venom. "So you're all off and away?"

  
Trini covers her face. "Far, far away"

  
The Blue Ranger turns onto his side to look at the row of his exhausted friends. "But not too far. I mean, we can teleport, so even if I'm across the country and Kimberly's in Europe we can still see each other in seconds"

  
Kimberly holds up a hand. "And we have Skype. You all better Skype me at least three times a week. Each"

  
They have an hour before Kimberly's parents return. An hour to recover, work out how to stage Kimberly's trauma from the 'collateral' damage her room took when the Rangers battled a foe near by, and for the others to make themselves scarce in order to act like they've only just heard the news and are oh so worried.

  
Plenty of time.

  
"What about you, Jason?" Trini asks, after a universal murmur of promise to Kimberly. "Where's Mr. Allstar going?"

  
Her tone isn't nearly as playful with the nickname, and as Zack turns his head to look at the side of Jason's face, burning with curiosity, he can see Jason scowl. Zack had wanted to ask about Jason's plans so many times but whenever the topic of graduation and college came up, Jason twisted the conversation around: usually distracting Zack with a hand job or make out session. At the time it had frustrated him, but never made him so empty like it was now: the thought of Jason brushing them off. Again. Like they were  _nothing._

  
Zordon said they could all go where they pleased as in a blink they could reunite as the Rangers, no matter how far the distance across the planet, and fight off whatever came. The only hitch was that there needed to be at least one of them in Angel Grove at any given time to monitor the Zeo Crystal, keep an eye out for anything darting at the Earth's bullseye.

  
Zack knew that was him. With his grades, priorities and mother needing him, he was happy to stay behind and beamed with pride at the thought of where all his friends were heading. He could hijack the library's wifi for Skype calls and maybe even get visits from teleporting companions when they scored a break from lectures and college parties. He knew the others knew this too: they'd never spoken about it, but it just made sense for Zack to stay at Angel Grove.

  
"Nowhere" Jason intones.

  
Billy sits up sharply, glaring down at Jason with an intensity that takes his friends off guard. "Wait, what? No. I know you don't have the football thing anymore but you could still get in-"

  
"No, Billy. I'm not going to college"

  
Zack wants to reach out, wants to take Jason's hand and smooth his thumb over the inside of Jason's wrist in a way he knows calms the Red Ranger down from impending panic attacks and more commonly, anger tangents. He doesn't. Because he feels heavy. Sullen. Pointless.

  
"Why not?" Billy counters back, with no patience for Jason's tone of voice. "You're one of the highest scoring students in the year, you're third highest in our AP Math class. Jason, you can't just not go to college"

  
Kimberly's eyebrows raise, sensing an argument coming. "Guys-"

  
"I can and that's exactly what I'm doing, Billy. I'm not going to college, I never applied, there are no offers, so I'm staying here"

  
Seeing Jason and Billy shout at each other is terrifying and bizarre. They had argued before but only ever in tense conversations never raising beyond clear speaking level: the pair got along too well, were too amicable, for anything more explosive. Jason wasn't generally inclined to shouting and Billy was not inclined towards anger, and even in their unassuming soft clothes, feet with socks but no shoes, they look electrifying. All the Rangers are on their feet before they know it, the argument between Red and Blue escalating fast, and Trini's backing away towards the door, overwhelmed and anxiously running her hands through her hair.

Kimberly steps between them, even though they're far from fisticuffs, but doesn't touch either, instead she snaps: fierce and harsh. "Enough!"

  
Billy pipes down immediately as if slapped, shocked with himself, but Jason takes more work. He looks ready to turn his bubbling anger on Kimberly, but it clicks off when Zack curves an arm around his chest and steps in front of him, eyes wide and steadying. His hands comes up to Jason's face, stroking over his cheeks, and Jason's hands are shaking uncontrollably. They can hear Trini's heavy breathing loud and clear.

  
"Come on" Kimberly says softly, radiating compassion that contradicts the bleak feeling sickening her. "We're all tired and scared. Let's... let's all go home for the night okay?"

  
She says it like her home isn't wrecked around them, like she hasn't got an emotionally draining performance to put on when her parents arrive and call the authorities.

  
The Pink Ranger is right though. They are scared, and it has nothing to do with Jason's plans. It has everything to do with Zedd's attacks, how close they come to being fatal every time, weeks of fear bubbling up and now, when they're all moving away, the timing couldn't be worse.

  
They're scared of the harrowing realisation that this is not just a one time thing, defeat Rita and get on with their lives. They're tied in until they die, according to Zordon and Alpha A. Death or an extremely painful process of being ripped from their coin that leaves a trauma on the souls of all Rangers in the team. They're not the Avengers or an X-Man team up. They're bonded to each other for life, and tied to a dangerous job that trumps all their other priorities.

  
And Trini is scared because all she can think about is Rita's warnings. It can't last, you know that. I was once like you. So full of hope.

  
Jason and Billy don't shout at each other. They just don't.

  
Rita is wrong, but what if she's _right_.

  
Billy looks as if he might cry, and Jason is crying. Their eyes meet over Kimberly's shoulder, and Zack lets Jason go instantly when the pair lunge forward to hug, apologising over and over to each other.

  
Kimberly runs a hand through her hair and thinks about how she's not going to have to fake her hysterics later.

* * *

  
Zack decides to walk Jason home, leaving it to Billy and Trini to decide who's walking who home, and the four of them walk on beat together as always. None of them have the energy for another Jump. From Kimberly's house up to the turning where Billy and Trini break off from them, they march in silence. They're all shaken from the fight and the argument, and by the feeling of wrongness.

  
That Zedd minion had been different from the others, that much was obvious. It radiated green light for one, and Zack's willing to bet all the money he and his mother have that it had something to do with the ill feeling that spread through the Rangers like a virus, because the further they get from the scene the more they calm down. Trini doesn't look on the verge of a panic attack anymore, and Zack feels his numbness ebb.

  
The Rangers have seen too many movies to have that wool pulled over their eyes.

  
Jason and Billy hug again, whispering apologies to each other even though by now they both know it wasn't really them, and then it's just Zack and Jason. Their friends have barely disappeared out of vision before Jason's hand reaches for Zack's, shaking and cautious.

  
"I don't envy you having to explain that to Wall Dad" Zack pipes up, a block away from Jason's house. His emptiness eases away some more when Red's lips twitch into a smile. "He'll probably think we Humans have some kind of emotional power, we're so in tune we can sense when we're being manipulated- Ehhh! No. Just a lot, a lot of sci-fi"

  
The blonde gives a faint laugh when Zack loudly makes the buzzer sound. "Yeah, we're all total nerds. Nerds for the win"

  
"Nerds for the win" The Black Ranger agrees, holding onto Jason's hand tighter and chasing the feeling of being alive that's returning with every step away from Kimberly's house. They regret leaving her, but she had insisted they stick with the plan. Regardless, Zack was definitely stopping by to check on her.

  
The two men naturally come to a stop outside Jason's house, and after everything that happened it feels strange to see a neighborhood so quiet. Dark, curtains closed, a world asleep. Even Kimberly's neighbors had mostly kept to themselves. Such was the way in Angel Grove lately. If you heard the Rangers taking something down, stay indoors unless they knock and order you out.

  
They turn to face each other in one fluid movement, hands moving up their arms: Zack's under Jason's elbows, and Jason's resting atop of Zack's forearms. The abyss cloaking Zack's mind dissolves completely, at last, when Jason leans forward and rests their foreheads together. Standing like this, with no shoes on or armor, Zack notices that Jason is actually taller than him, but not by much. The flat of Jason's sneakers and the thick sole of Zack's hard wearing boots had in all the times before brought them to eye level it seemed, and the dark haired boy's mouth flutters into a smile when he has to tilt his head up the barest amount. His nose bumps Jason's gently.

  
"What did you say to me?" Jason asks, voice cracking.

  
Zack frowns. He hadn't said a thing.

  
"Not now, the other night, Friday night, when you... when I was... you said something to me, twice. What was it?" Jason clears his throat, his thumbs rubbing circles against the sensitive nook of Zack's elbows. Zack has to think about it for a while, and he flushes when he remembers.

  
我爱你.

  
He'd had to force himself to stop thinking about it all through detention the next day, sneaking glances Jason's way as the Red Ranger dutifully kept his head down and completed his work.

  
Zack plays dumb. "Can't remember, probably just swearing"

  
Jason presses his head firmer against Zack's. "No, no, no, you weren't swearing you said... um, woh aye ne. What's that?"

  
It's wobbly, uncertain but close enough that Zack's blush deepens. From the look on Jason's face he already knows to some degree. He has an idea, he'd tried to find a translation but when he got the answer it couldn't be right: he had to be recounting it wrong. He needed Zack to say it again.

  
"我爱你" Zack says, quiet but clear. Wǒ ài nǐ.

  
Jason's hands tighten on his arms. A silent 'And that means?'.

  
Zack tilts his head and catches Jason's bottom lip between his, pressing lightly and steps closer when Jason returns the kiss. Someone sighs into it, content and the other hums in answer. One kiss turns into a series of light touches, no tongues or teeth, no heat and fever. After a while Jason breaks away to dot a line of kisses over Zack's cheekbone, from below his eye to his temple, and wraps them up close in a tight hug. Zack's eyelashes flutter lightly when Jason whispers the perfect translation into his ear.

  
In the corner of his eye Zack thinks he sees a curtain flutter but pays it no attention when Jason kisses him again. One hand rests on Jason's hip while the other curves up to cover Jason's left hand that cups his neck: fingers finding the ring immediately.

  
"Keep this" It's not an offer.

  
The Red Ranger grins, pulling away feeling light and thinks about how all this started with a fight and a broken ring. He lamely pretends to punch Zack in the chin with it, making the other snort and shake his head.

  
Zack shoves Jason away, broadly smiling from ear to ear, and Jason stumbles back with a bright laugh that lifts off the lasting heaviness from Zedd's bad vibes machine.

  
"See you n'morrow" Jason salutes as he walks backwards down his drive, and Zack salutes back.

  
He doesn't run back to Kimberly's house until Jason's door closes.

* * *

  
Jason is a liar.

  
Zack doesn't seem him the next day, no one does, and if they weren't all already texting him Kimberly would be ordering them all to. Her expression is frantic, and Zack's pretty sure she's going to order them all over to Jason's house the second the final bell rings. At first he doesn't get her urgency, he's concerned of course, but Kimberly's almost hysterical as the day drags on and they don't hear a peep from their leader.

  
It's at lunch time when she cracks.

  
"I'm worried because of that fucking thing in my house screwing with our emotions" Kimberly half shouts, when Trini tells her Jason's more likely than not just ill and hasn't been awake to reply to their texts. All the Rangers when they got sick or too badly injured hibernated. A healing trance, Zordon called it, unable to be woken from unless by the power of the coins in dire need, but that was not how five immature teens took it. They hibernated. Like cute little hedgehogs. "Last night I felt... I mean my parents came back like minutes after you guys left, and everything was _fine_ , but did anyone stay with Jason? I mean that thing amplified every bad thought and feeling we've ever had, and I'm not the only one who's tried to-"

  
She cuts off, eyes burning, and Billy is shaking his head as he scrambles for his phone. He's not texting, he's calling, and Trini pushes her food away from her to cover her mouth: almost retching at the thought that hadn't occurred to her sooner. It was no secret in the group that Kimberly's depression took her to places she feared being dragged to, and that she was, despite Jason's closeness to Billy, Jason's mutual confidant. None of the others knew what Kimberly knew.

None of them knew about Jason's extended stay at hospital after the nurses found him.

  
Zack shakes his head. "No, no, he's not- He hasn't done that. He was _happy_ , he was really happy last night when I left him. There was none of that Zedd shit left. We... He... Fuck it"

  
Trini shouts and runs after him when Zack launches out of his seat, crashing by pissed off students as they plow through the cafeteria. Billy has all their bags and a phone to his ear, chanting for anyone to pick up, and Kimberly catches up to them easily being the fastest Ranger. Students start to part through the corridors as all four sprint along with no regard for others, ignoring a teacher who shouts for no running in the halls.

  
"Pick up, come on. Pick up, pick up, pick u-" Billy abruptly stops when the phone clicks and a voice replies. Like whiplash the others spin around, crowding up to the Blue Ranger with wild eyes and heaving chests. "Oh um hi Mrs. Scott. Is, is Jason there? It's just he isn't at school and we haven't seem him, we were just worried- Oh. Oh right. Okay. I'm sorry for bother-"

  
He blinks in shock and looks at his phone.

  
"She said he's not there. Home I mean, I rang his house phone"

  
Trini holds up her hands, and they're trembling. "Okay wait, let's think about this. Remember what Zor... what he said. We would know. Wouldn't we? We would know if he..."  
They would and the realisation crashes into them like a train. Relief. Choking relief.

  
Zack searches, dipping into the Morphing Grid blended with his soul, and among the flickers of yellow, blue and pink light there's still a red one happily glowing away to itself. Kimberly's legs give out and Zack catches her. They fall against the wall and Trini moves over to the other wall, spectating students scurrying out of her way, with her eyes closed to contain the waterfall in them.

  
Billy smiles, but it's distracted. The tone Jason's mother took was so odd.

  
Zack counts down in his head and before he even reaches five Trini has spun around with a furious look on her face that terrifies the other kids near by.

  
"Then where is he? Who the fuck does he think he is worrying us?" She doesn't shrug off Billy's hand on her shoulder, but it's close. "Huh?"

  
Billy gestures to his phone. "Jason's mom hung up on me. She was angry. What could have happened between yesterday, when she dropped him off and now?"

  
Kimberly and the others think back to when Jason arrived the day before. His mother drove him, by way of a change, and even kissed him on the cheek. Nothing seemed off.

The Pink Ranger's head snaps around in surprise when Zack swears loudly in English, remembering the curtain moving the night before during their confessions and sits up, taking his bag off Billy and walking out of the school, not looking back to see if the others follow him.

* * *

  
Jason cracks an eye open when the door of the rail car opens and light casts over his empty face.

  
First on him is Trini, who shoves past Zack and launches herself at him, then comes Kimberly who squeezes them both in a crushing hug.

  
"Oof" Jason puffs when Trini jabs him in the gut for scaring them, her anger is still there but its too drenched in happiness and relief to have any heat anymore. The girls pull away to let Billy sit on the mattress in front of Jason, and for a second the Blue Ranger looks at Jason's destroyed, exhausted face with sore, red eyes and blotchy cheeks, then pulls him in into a much more gentle hug than theirs.

  
Jason pats his back, still blank faced.

  
"I'm sorry guys"

  
Billy inches back, hands on Jason's shoulders. "You okay?"

  
It's a simple question and Jason starts off nodding, but then it turns into a shake and his steel mask cracks. Zack pulls the door closed and moves before any of the other Rangers can get in to comfort Jason. Instead of sitting on front of Jason like the others, he eases up behind the Red Ranger and wraps his arms around his waist, hands clasped on Jason's stomach, and his chin hooks over Jason's shoulder with his face pressed to Jason's neck. His legs fold over Jason's, completely wrapping Zack around him.

  
Jason holds the arms around his stomach and turns his face to Zack's, nuzzling as Zack brushes a soft kiss under his eye. It's intimate and even for them with their tactile nature it's too overt to be anything along the lines of a bromance. It's raw and Billy swallows down the urge to ask if this is about his mother. If they had a fight. If it was about... this.  
Of course it was.

  
Trini drops her head onto Kimberly's shoulder, and Billy opts instead for settling down on a comfortable spot between the two couples, a hand on each of their close ankles, and compliments the homely looking den they're in.

  
"Kinda stinks though" Trini murmurs, to fight off the demons forming in her head from seeing her biggest fear come to life in Jason. "Reeks of dudes"

  
Kimberly sniffs. "Yeah. Open a window or something"

 

"An air freshener" Billy wisely says.

  
Jason laughs, barely there, and then sobers again. "I knew she'd find out eventually. Guess I just you know... Hoped she wouldn't freak out so much. I don't know if my dad knows, he hadn't got back when she-"

  
"You can stay at mine" Kimberly and Billy offer at the same time, making everyone in the rail car smile. Again together they say "Sorry, oh, ha, you first- Oh"

  
It's a hilarious time for their hive mind to come to life, and to only infect the two of them. It's easy to have a laugh together over it, almost as if the coins know some tension needs to break, and for a short while that's what they all do. They complain about getting trapped in synchronization sometimes, about how much it sucks that they can feel the damage done to their Zords and how they can't open wrappers anymore without flinging the contents a few feet away, they have to delicately peel everything open nowadays and how time consuming that is when they're hungry.

  
They chat about it until Billy and Kimberly's sync breaks almost an hour later, the group almost crying with laughter every time Pink and Blue loudly groan about how long the annoying sync is lasting, and by the time a pleasant, calm aura settles over them Jason's cheeks are pink from smiling not crying and rather than hunched over he's cross legged and leaning back against Zack: their linked hands in his lap.

  
Even though Kimberly and Billy offered, Zack's already decided Jason is coming to live with him. Small house or not, his mother adores Jason and saw right through them months before they even realised, and with the two of them moving away to their respective colleges it's not a long term solution for Jason to stay at theirs: so Zack's it is. Trini doesn't offer for obvious reasons that no one mentions.

  
Zack is about to declare this when he feels his coin shake and heat up in his pocket, and notices the others react as their's do too.

  
Seconds later an explosion does off.

  
"Oh, as if" Kimberly shouts, expressing the unanimous feeling of the Power Rangers.

  
Jason pats Zack's arm. "Alright.. Morphin' time"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this one is a little darker, because it's introducing the plot for the next story in this series. The follow on will still be heavy Zason, they carry on sleeping together and having cute moments, but there'll also be more Trimberly (Trini's still underage in America for the time being, but that will change Trimberly fans a.k.a everyone), and Billy inclusion too, with more of a general plot around them all rather than central to the two boys. 
> 
> I made an error in the previous chapter that's now been fixed, because I used the wrong words for what Zack says to Jason xD I used his future nickname for Jason rather than what I meant him to say. Woooopps. It's all corrected now though! For those who didn't catch on, Zack told Jason he loves him, and Jason's said it back!! YAY the boys are out now, out to each other and the other Rangers. 
> 
> Small hints for the next story: Zordon is an Unhappy Wall Dad, Alpha A is just a delighted momma, space shit happens, the Rangers encounter Zedd and he's scarier than his Slenderman inspired bots, and Billy makes a green themed friend.

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to Hailee Steinfeld's Rock Bottom on repeat for about five hours writing this guys. I am in too deep.  
> 


End file.
